[mkjessup]

One of the first and major challenges facing Trudeau is the abysmal condition of Canada's military forces.

Example 1 - The Sikorsky CH-124 'Sea King' helicopters have been in continuous service since 1963 and it was only in 2009 that the Ministry of Defense (HARPER's Ministry of Defense) finally got off their dead asses and ordered replacements, and guess what?

They just received SIX new replacements (Sikorsky CH-148 Cyclones) just this past June. Meanwhile, the Sea Kings continue to be used as necessary, and while the phrase "flying death trap" has been overused, it certainly applies in the case of the aged Sea Kings.

Example 2 - Canada's surface fleet is wasting away from age, rust and related reliability issues, and HMCS Protecteur (commissioned in 1969) is a great example, being one of only two surviving Canadian supply ships, (“oilers” that re-fuel other ships at sea), it remains in service because it has taken over 10 years to finally settle on a design and authorize replacement, and the new ships won’t be completed until 2018 at the earliest. At one point, Canadian Navy personnel were combing eBay for parts to repair components of the Protecteur because the original manufacturers were either out of business or no longer supplied replacement parts.

Example 3 - Canada's submarine "fleet". The Liberal government of Jean Chretien purchased four mothballed diesel-electric boats from Tony Blair's Used Submarine Shoppe in the UK back in 1998 for $896 million dollars, on their maiden voyage back to Canada, one sub caught fire, one sailor died, others injured, it was obvious from the beginning that they were nowhere near being operational or even seaworthy. The Harper government has poured millions more into those lemons, and achieved a monumental goal earlier this year, it was announced that 3 out of the 4 subs were 'operational' however only 1 sub can actually fire torpedoes. Not content to waste approximately 1 billion dollars by the Chretien regime, Harper followed up in 2008 by authorizing an additional 1.5 billion for 'support and service' of those four seagoing jokes.

Justin Trudeau has gone on the record as saying that he will 'stand up' to Vladimir Putin, however if Putin decides to move into Canadian arctic waters, you can be certain that the current sorry state of the Canadian Navy will be unable to do anything except issue press releases objecting to whatever Putin chooses to do.

As I said to a fine Canadian last night who said he "didn't give a crap about an old crap navy", a nation unable to protect it's borders and coastline is NOT a nation, it is a future conquered territory awaiting it's occupier.

That is what Justin Trudeau had better be thinking about.

[Sam Gamgee]

Soldiers are for peace keeping. That is what it will return to.

You sound like an expert. From what I understood in 2006 is that Canada needed 10% year over year budget increases for at least a decade to get our military forces up to par.

Harper did some of that but not near enough.